AMNA NAWAZ: Late this afternoon, the Department of Education announced plans to cut nearly half of its employees more than 1, 300 people.

It's the latest move by the Trump administration to dramatically reshape the size and scope of the federal government.

Lisa Desjardins has been tracking these late changes, and she joins me now.

So, Lisa, we know this is a huge cut for a department the president has said that he actually wants to try to eliminate altogether.

Where are those cuts happening, and what's the impact?

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

Department of Education officials spoke to reporters a short time ago.

This is major news.

Now, these are going to be the largest cuts that the Department of Education has experienced since it was created.

So, let's take a look at what we know.

We are expecting 1,300 people to be fired, reduction in force.

That's a termination.

Now, that is in addition to more than 500 people who took different offers, for example, the fork offer to leave early.

So, when you put all that together, Amna, what you have is a Department of Education that will see a total work force cut of about 50 percent.

Now, this is -- it looks to be one of the largest cuts we have seen in reduction of force in federal history for one agency, of course, the USAID also having a major cut.

Workers today didn't find out about this directly.

Some of them may be learning about it right now as I speak to you.

But what they did receive was an e-mail telling them that they had to leave their offices in the Washington area by 6:00, that the doors would be shut, and that for security reasons, the e-mail said, they were not allowed to return tomorrow.

Offices here in the Washington area will be closed tomorrow for the Department of Education.

The official on the call with reporters said that's for safety reasons.

Now, they didn't take any questions, so we don't really understand.

They said that's for the safety of the workers that are remaining.

One other important note, they plan on closing Department of Education facilities in a number of cities.

I think they mentioned New York, Chicago, Boston, and in Washington, going from three buildings down to one, ultimately.

AMNA NAWAZ: The big news late today.

We're going to keep tracking that.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, another story you're tracking, of course, the House of Representatives passed its plan to avert a potential government shutdown, the funding bill later this week.

There were some Republican holdouts even as late as this morning who eventually changed their mind.

What happened?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Kyle Midura, our producer, was in the halls this morning talking to a number of members who said, I'm still undecided.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

Well, they had to get this perfect, and House Republicans did.

This was a very big victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump.

And it was Trump and Vice President Vance who helped secure this.

Vance spoke to Republicans in person at the Capitol today, put on the pressure, and got every single Republican, except for one, Thomas Massie, he was a guaranteed no, to push this through.

So, a big win for Republicans.

Now this goes to the Senate.

AMNA NAWAZ: This goes to the Senate.

We also know there was a lone Democrat in the House who voted for this bill.

What should we understand about that?

And what do we expect to happen in the Senate?

LISA DESJARDINS: It's notable.

Jared Golden of Maine is known as a moderate Democrat.

He is the only one who voted to pass this.

And he took to social media, and he said, he did not think this was a perfect bill, but he did not want to shut down government.

He also criticized Democrats, Amna, interestingly, saying that their messaging was inappropriate, and he felt like they were saying outlandish and inappropriate or inaccurate things about this bill.

He again said not perfect, but he doesn't want to shut down government.

As for the Senate, what the House is doing here, they're leading town, and they're daring Senate Democrats to shut down government.

I don't think they will.

This is jamming the Senate.

Usually, it goes the other way.

Right now, we're on track for this bill to pass.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa Desjardins covering the late-breaking news here.

Lisa, thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.